Estonia has made important advances in developing a variety
of digital solutions that aim to improve the quality of life of Estonians.
Estonian information society benefits from the active role the public sector
plays in commissioning innovative solutions and creating favourable conditions
for digital development, as well as from the important initiatives and
contributions of private companies and nonprofit organisations. Just to name a
few, the best known IT-solutions include electronic identity and ID-card,
Mobile-ID, Smart-ID, e-residency program etc. (For more information
on the Estonian e-solutions visit e-estonia and the showroom.)

Representatives from all the mentioned sectors aim to
continue developing the digital skills of Estonians through their activities
and have come together in 2017 to establish the National Digital Skills and
Jobs Coalition coordinated by the All Digital partner organisation Vaata
Maailma foundation. All of the coalition partners have made significant
contributions to developing the digital skills in Estonia in the past.

The partners of the coalition have extensive experience in digital skills trainings. The coordinating organisation Vaata Maailma has
organised several large scale training project regarding digital skills. In
2002-2004 100 000 people (10% of the Estonian adult population) received basic
computer training through the Vaata Maailma training project which was financed
fully by private companies: Swedbank, SEB Bank, Elion and EMT (Telia Sonera
Group). All of these private companies are included in the national coalition.
In 2009-2011 Vaata Maailma training project once again offered basic computer
training and training in e-services to 102 697 people (more than 10% of the
adult population of Estonia). The project partners included the leading IT
training providers in Estonia, IT Koolitus and BCS Koolitus, who are also the
members of the coalition. The project was commissioned through a public
procurement by the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications
(also a member of the National Coalition).

The Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications
and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (HTM) are both the founding
members of the National Coalition. Both of these public sector organisations
have made significant contributions to developing the Estonian digital society
through important public procurements that provide funding for digital skills
related projects and through developing important national strategies for
advancing our digital society. Important strategic documents developed by the
The Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications include Cyber Security Strategy for 2014–2017 and Digital Agenda 2020. Important strategic
documents developed by the Ministry of Education and Research include Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020, Knowledge-based Estonia 2014–2020 both of
which include important sections on digital skills. To implement the Lifelong
Learning Strategy 2020 a program
Digital Focus has been initiated. The Ministry of Economic Affairs
and Communications has also made important efforts to reduce the bureaucratic
burden on businesses by implementing e-services and launching the project Zero-Bureaucracy.

Additionally, several members of the coalition (the Estonian
Qualification Authority, the Ministry of Education and Research, and the
Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
belong to the board of the OSKA prognosis system which tackles the
contradiction between the skills of the labour force and needs of the labour
market and provided training opportunities. Since 2015 OSKA analyses the needs
for labour and skills necessary for the economic development of Estonia. The
system also analyses the question of digital skills in each economic sector
they analyse.

Despite the prodigious leaps in the field of digitalisation in Estonia, there
remains important work to be done. Even though the average figures that show
the digital skills of the population and the tendency to use the Internet (85%)
are above the average in the European Union, Estonia is below average in integrating digital technologies
to the day to day working life. Estonian companies are on the 23rd place in the
European Union in sharing info digitally and using social media. The OECD study
PIAAC regarding the skills of adults additionally shows that 8-10% of Estonians
(72 000 – 90 000)
have low skills in information processing and 42-44% of people cannot cope in a
technologically advanced environment. Estonia is a European leader in the field of public
services provided on the Internet, and the rate of e-banking deployment is one
of the highest in the European Union (90%). However, a part of the population does not use
the most accessible security measures (electronic identity issued in Estonia
since 2002) for using public e-services. Therefore, the National Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition was brought to life. The members of the
coalition will continue to carry out activities
concentrated on two main target groups: citizens and digital skills and labour
force.